As you may remember from my post “Confessions of a First Time Cosplayer” I really like cosplaying. Who doesn’t?! But I have to admit, even after my numerous Doctor Who cosplays and my pretty killer femme Spike Spiegel, I still feel like a newb since I didn’t actually make anything from scratch myself. The designs and concepts were my own, but the crafting was not. But after some drinks with Cosplay Queen Darth Rachel and a little pep talk from her, I feel less newby.

I let my lack of craftiness limit me, but I will not let it hold me back any longer! I will try my damndest to create most of these clothes and items by hand. I will probably fail many times, but that’s part of the fun… right?

Either way, here’s my cosplay queue, the characters I want to cosplay badly because they are my faves and they look super freaking cool. Shout out to the homie Leslie IRL for the blog post idea!

Space Dandy

Space Dandy is ridiculous anime and I love it so much. I’ll genderbend this up with a ’50s style dress or skirt and top to match Dandy’s Greaser look. But this cosplay is actually happening irl at NYCC this year! I have the jacket already, I just need to make shoes. >_<

Delirium from Sandman

Sandman is one of my favorite comic book series of all time. Delirium was definitely one of my favorite of the Endless. I was always excited when she would pop up in the comic. Making the wig for her cosplay will be fun!

Gwendolyn from Saga

I freaked out when I first saw Gwendolyn. Being a black girl who reads comics, I don’t see lots of characters that look like me, so when BVK created bomb-ass Gwendolyn I was beside myself. Just look at her looking all magnificent!

Motoko Kusanagi from Ghost in the Shell

The Major is one of my favorite characters ever! She’s a shining example of a strong female character. The Ghost in the Shell series is one of my all time faves as well. I even wrote a 20 page paper in grad school about GITS and post-humanism (see: Cyborgs Exist and Humanity is Doomed for a shorter version). There are so many looks I could go with; but I already know I’m not going to do the one where she doesn’t wear pants.

Spider Jerusalem from Transmetropolitan

Spider is one of my favorite comic book characters. He’s such a lovable bastard! I’m doing a genderbent Spider. I really like genderbending.

Leatherface Joker

I want to cosplay Leatherface Joker so badly. He’s so gorgeously gruesome! I’ll probably genderbend this one too because I just like to do that and it’s fun. I have no idea how I will even do the mask but if there’s a will, there’ s a way!

Lumpy Space Princess from Adventure Time

Oh my glob! How can you not love LSP?! With this cosplay I’ll probably go the non-lumpy route and wear a over-the-top dress instead, with a big purple wig and of course, the star.

Berg Katze from Gatchaman Crowds

So I actually haven’t finished this anime yet… whoops. BUT I immediately fell in love with Berg Katze and his character design. I MEAN LOOK AT THAT HAIR! He’s fun villain and reminds me of the Joker because you don’t really hate him as much as you probably should.

OMFG YOU GUYS! I cannot even deal with how friggin’ gorgeous Sandman Over #2 is! J.H. Williams III is a GOD. I will build an alter in his honor and put food there every Wednesday (because that’s the sacred comic book day). Next door to the JHW3 alter I will build a shrine in honor the letterer, Todd Klein. I will pray to The Endless there and all my dreams will come true.

Williams’ panels in Overture #2 are some of the most creative I’ve ever seen. But he’s been stuntin’ on these pages since Overture #1. Remember that “OMG IT’S A MOUTH! Panel”? Genius!

Well back to #2. I open the first page and there is Daniel Dream looking gorg in all white (Oh hey, boo. *wink*). But peep the panels! I mean can you even call them panels at this point? Well, the pentagon goes all Inception on us because it’s a panel within a panel. The pentagon shape itself probably has some Gaimanesque 4-layer literary meaning. But I can’t figure out because I’m lost in Dream’s beautiful black eyes.

Neil Gaiman’s story is too magnificent to be confined to regular box panels. The rest of the issue is all like, “Panels? WTF is a panel?”

Then you skip a few pages and you feel like you’ve taken some hallucinogen. But don’t worry, it’s just what happens when you combine the awesome power of Klein’s lettering, JHW3’s art and Gaiman’s words. You start trippin’!

Then there’s a freakin’ Dream convention which is both brilliant and hilarious. We meet the very first Dream (holy crap!) and all of the creatures he was/is Dream for (holy crap!). Then all of the different Dreams basically realize that they can be, “self-satisfied, irritating and self-possessed”. I love him, but come on; Dream can be such a dick. If you’re like me, you probably spent like 10 minutes on this page because there is so much going on. It’s so overwhelming! But it makes you happy because it’s so epic. I took the time to marvel at every single Dream.

This page is also where Todd Klein shows why he’s an OG. The thing with lettering in comics is you don’t really notice it most of the time because most speech bubbles are “regular”. But Klein’s lettering in Sandman is legend. My favorites are Dream’s black bubble with white text (and sometimes the opposite) and Delirum’s rainbow bubbles and irregular text size.

On the page below, he goes ham and each Dream gets their own unique speech bubble. This was my favorite part of the entire comic. I had so much a fun coming up with the voices for Dream to match the different types of bubbles.

Then some really cool things happen in the story. Like we find out Dream is going to see his DAD with the Dream of Cats. OMFGWUT?!

Like this:

As many of you know by now, I’m a very big fan of the writer Neil Gaiman. The entry-level Gaiman drug of choice for me was the comic series Sandman. If you’ve read it, you already know just how utterly brilliant it is. It’s one of those series that’s masterfully blends myth, mystery and mind-blowing stories. It is easily one of my top favorite comic book series. Despite my many Tattoo Tuesday posts I blog about, only 2 out of my 6 tattoos can be called “geeky”. Now I love looking at geeky ink, but for me to decide to get something tattooed on my body (forever), it had to hit me on several levels, and that’s what this quote from Sandman did.

Now Sandman is a pretty long series, but I remember the day I read “Fear of Falling” vividly. It’s one of the few things I’ve read that gave me actual goosebumps. The quote is, “Sometimes you wake up. Sometimes the fall kills you. And sometimes, when you fall, you fly.” This is a loaded quote for me because I have a mini obsession about dreams, so it hits me on that level easily. But more importantly, it’s a constant reminder to myself not to limit what I do in life because I’m afraid of failure.

A few years later, I finally decided to get the quote inked, but then I had to find a tattoo artist. Because my tattoo was a quote from a comic, I wanted someone who would “get” the significance to tattoo me. That’s when I met the talented lolita geek tattoo artist, Imani. Well, we met on the internet first, as many people do nowadays, through my friends Otakus & Geeks. Finally, at NYCC last year we met in person. I spotted her adorable pastel-colored locks in a sea of cosplayers and it was like we were old friends meeting again. That’s when I decided I’d wait for the chance for Imani to tattoo me. A couple of months ago, she came back to NYC and it finally happened! She’s a talented illustrator and I wanted to use her superpowers to create a custom tattoo for me. She literally sketched out the quote on my back before tattooing. Of course, I couldn’t be happier with tattoo and the experience. Thanks, girl!

I’ve returned from my Jamaican vacation which seemed like both an eternity and not long enough. When I’m on vacation I try my best to keep my strict no-internet policy. Which may account for my twitter binge once my plane landed in JFK Sunday night. I had an amazing time and although I won’t do another detailed travel blog like I did for my Italian vacation during winter break. However, I will comment on a few geek related occurrences. Continue reading →

Javier Gonzalez Pacheco is a Spanish artist living in Barcelona and I love his dreamlike unique style! Below are a beautiful collection of Sandman art and two Batman/Joker pieces. A lot of these Sandman pieces I feel fit right into the cover designs of the Neil Gaiman Sandman series, especially the second Corinthian I posted.

Because I had such a difficult time deciding on which image to use for the Picture of the Week, I’m going to feature Delirium for half the week and Death for the other half.

This weeks Tattoo Tuesday features Neil Gaiman’sSandman comic book series. I found some beautiful tattoos of Dream, The Endless, other characters, quotes and symbols. I’m currently reading the Sandman series now and think it is pure genius. It also feeds the ravenous fascination I have about dreams, my obsession with literature and my growing comic book fangirlness all at the same time. Although I’m not done with the series yet, I could seriously see myself getting a tattoo of a Sandman/Gaiman quote in the future.

UPDATE: After @neilhimself RT’ed this post (yes, I fainted!) I got an enormous amount of views which just sent me over the moon! A lot of you wonderful Sandman fans included links in the comments section below of their own Sandman tattoos which I loved to see. So I wanted to make sure everyone else looked in the comments section and checked those out as well. There’s some really good ones! I really appreciate everyone adding their tattoo in the comments! Everyone else feel free to share your Sandman ink below!

I included all the information about the tattoo that was available. If you are interested in having me feature your geeky tattoo on a future Tattoo Tuesdayfeel free to email me at girlgonegeekblog[at]gmail.com.

Neil Gaiman’s best-selling and award-winning comic series Sandman may be one of the newest comic to get it’s own show. Warner Bros. is currently sorting out the rights with DC Entertainment. They have yet to sign a writer-producer for the adaptation. However, rumor has it that Eric Kripke (Supernatural) is their top pick for the project lead. Screen Rant said that Kripke is cautious about the project because he knows every detail will be under the watchful eyes of the very “powerful, dedicated and vocal [Sandman] fanbase”.

“The Sandman ran in publication from 1989 to 1996 and produced 75 single issues. The highly fantastical story of The Sandman follows Morpheus, the Master of Dreams (known by many other names as well) and is not your standard superhero comic, like most other books at the time were. Falling more in the lines of horror, fantasy and mythology, The Sandman is described by its creator and writer, Neil Gaiman, as follows:

What do you need to know to enjoy the series? Only that there are seven brothers and sisters who have been since the beginning of time, the Endless. They are Destiny, Death, Dream, Desire, Despair, Delirium who was once Delight, and Destruction who turned his back on his duties. Their names describe their function and the realms that they are in charge of. Several years ago, a coven of wizards attempted to end death by taking Death captive, but captured Dream instead. When he finally escapes he must face the changes that have gone on in his realm, and the changes in himself.”

Sandman has been in development limbo since the 1990’s. There’s been movie versions in the works but it later showed the best form of adaptation is the small screen route. It was just a few months ago that DC was working with HBO and James Mangold (Walk the Line, Girl Interrupted) to create a Sandman show, without WBTV involvement but it never stuck. This might be due to the lack of involvement Gaiman had with HBO.

Devils Advocate Time!

The fact that Kripke is approaching a possible Sandmanshow cautiously is a good sign and it gives me the feeling he has respect for the devotees and the work. So if he ends up leading the series, it’s safe to assume he will treat it with the same respect. Also I feel he’s done a great job in Supernatural by creating exciting serialized storylines as well as overarching plots. I also have to mention that Kripke stuck by his word and did not return to Supernatural when they renewed for a sixth season after he completed his planned five-season story line. So he gets some creative integrity brownie points there.

With all that being said about Kripke, I’ve been a devoted HBO watcher for years now and I love the freedom that HBO is able to provide. So it would be great for Sandman to be allowed to fully spread its wings and not have to worry about what is and isn’t allowed on a broadcast network. I hope it finds a home on AMC (Breaking Bad, Mad Men, The Walking Dead) or even FX (Sons of Anarchy, Rescue Me, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia). Even though I love SupernaturalI want it far away from the CW because it will be geared towards a younger audience which I feel will hinder the shows possibilities. Even Gaiman told MTV News that, “I think there are lots of ways to do Sandman. The most logical would be as an HBO-style series, and there are lots of directors who would like to do that, and there are lots of people who’ve suggested it.” Let’s give him what he wants! I wonder how much involvement Gaiman has with these decisions of the newest show possibilities?

I haven’t finished reading Sandman (I love it so far!) but I definitely will once I get through the truckload of comics I checked out from NYPL. I’m already super excited for The Walking Dead, so hopefully in the future Sandmanwill find a good home and a good step-father to raise it (again) and give it the adaptations it deserves.

King of Dreams fans I want you opinions! What do you think about it going to TV? Do you think it can be portrayed well or not? Which network and/or writer-director would you like to lead it?